Bloggers waste up to 60 Percent of their time Context Switching.Simple Content & Social Media strategies can correct this today.

In our survey of Irish Bloggers earlier this year, having TIME was the biggest challenge to Bloggers. If a blogger could eliminate Context Switching, they will get a higher return on the time they invest.

Why Does Blogging Take So Much Time?

Blogging is so much more than just writing a post and releasing it into the world. We require a blog platform, website design, headers, sidebars, footers and so much more before we even being. Then our blog post must have beautiful images, be SEO optimised and promoted across the ever increasing volume of social media platforms.

As Bloggers, we then start building processes that typically rely on learning new software. Be it for scheduling, image design or SEO purposes. The list of tasks and challenges that bloggers face are endless, and on top of this most have a full-time career and family to throw into the mix.

So it is no surprise that TIME has been called out as the biggest challenge to bloggers!

I used to Waste Hours with a Bad Blogging Setup!

A few years ago I suffered very badly from context switching, but never even noticed. It was a dark time as content switching is the enemy of all bloggers. The concept is simple and the transformation brilliant!

When I used to create blog posts for my football website, I would be sitting on the couch with the TV on and be eating snacks at the same time. It’s easy to see my blog posts were error strewn, published late and always took longer that I expected.

I crafted a Better Blogging Routine…it wasn’t the Silver Bullet

My blogging habits needed to change. My blogging routine now involves scheduling time to come up with blog post ideas, research them, conduct keyword research, write a couple of drafts, edit and proofread them before publishing.

I also only write at a desk or sometimes on my phone if on a flight or travelling without my laptop.

Blogging Quality Improved, But I still Wasted Time!

This process vastly improved the quality of my content, but the time it took to produce my blog content didn’t improve.

The continued was of time was surprising because although there were a few extra steps, they became very routine after a few months.

Finally, I heard about Context Switching…

I am a chronic “Context Switcher“, and I battle it every day!

Is Content Switching worth fighting for Bloggers? Hell Yes!

It has helped me become much more time efficient.

So What is Context Switching?

When we are working on a single project or task, it receives 100% of our attention. We work diligently and complete the project or task to a high standard quickly. Nothing too surprising with that.

Blogging is a prime example of an activity that can suffer from Context Switching. With a sole focus on creating a blog post, the blogger works through their blogging routine.

We Start with a Single Focus, Writing a Blog Post!

Come up with an idea, perhaps do a little research and start writing the first draft. Then create a couple of drafts and start the editing process. Do keyword research, then proofread before its published. Then some social promotion is done and perhaps a few promotional images for the various social platforms.

Let’s suppose this task takes 2 hours to complete end to end. It is a significant piece of work to complete with 100% focus.

Context Switching and Blogging

Let’s look at how a blogger normally creates a blog post. They are enthusiastic at the start, then after a few minutes, they hear a ping on their computer.

Context Switch One

You have 3 Facebook notifications, nothing too important or urgent is there accept a comment to on post you made in a group, and you would like to reply. So you start typing the reply.

Context Switch Two

Then your phone beeps, and its a WhatsApp from a friend asking you to call them, as you wonder if it’s important your phone starts ringing, and your friend is picking your brain. It’s helping them, but not of any real value to you.

All of a sudden, we are blogging, updating social, talking to friends, reading and replying to email ect

Context Switch Three & Four

As your friend is talking, you look at our emails. As the call ends you see a couple that needs a reply, so you send a reply. Then a few minutes is spent looking through your email.

And Back to Blogging

So then you finally go back to your blog post, it takes a couple of minutes to get back your train of thought and to continue the blog post.

If you are content switching between blogging, social media notifications, email and taking phone calls you are losing time. Again nothing too surprising in this except for the fact that the “Switch” between tasks “Taxes” your time!

Each time you content switch, you lose 20% of your time!

Bloggers who multitask four tasks at once lose 60% of time to content switching.

Considering bloggers are short of time, this is a total disaster. It simply should not be tolerated, and everything possible should be done to stop this time suck.

So what can Bloggers do to beat Context Switching?

A little more organisation can go a long way. Schedule time to blog into your calendar and turn off social notifications, email updates and put your phone on silent.

Kill Mobile Distractions with the Forrest App

Only today the ever helpful Sinead from Sinead Social shared an app that she uses called The Forest App that helps her ignore her phone to get blogging complete. If your phone causes the most content switching for you, then check this out!

Giving yourself 30 mins to blog solidly will help you get much further with the task than content switching for an hour or so doing the same.

Schedule Time for Email & Social

A ninja tip for bloggers is scheduling a time to catch up on email and social media on your calendar. 20 minutes in the morning, lunchtime and evening helps me stay on top of this.

It dramatically reduces the chances of me relapsing into content switching with these pleasure inducing FOMO (fear of missing out) time draining necessary evils!

Having time scheduled to check email and social feeds also reduce anxiety and make me less likely to content switch because I know I will get my fix. It also means that nobody is waiting too long for a response.

In Conclusion,

Content Switching is the quiet monster that causes bloggers to waste what limited time they have to blog. Following a few simple steps such as scheduling time to write, scheduling time to catchup on email, social and calls can help you become 60% more effective.

If you would like to learn more about Context Switching, Todd Herman has a great video on this and so much more that will improve your blog.